/CAMPS

(Nashville, Tenn.) Dialysis Clinic, Inc., (DCI) was selected to participate in an Organ Summit hosted by the White House on Monday, June 13. The Administration calls the event “another essential step toward increasing access to organ transplants and reducing the organ waiting list.”

Doug Johnson, MD, vice chair of the board at DCI, outlined DCI’s commitment to reduce the kidney transplant wait list by launching initiatives to increase awareness and access to transplant for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD).

“At the summit, the Administration and private entities announced a new set of actions that will build on the Administration’s previous accomplishments to improve outcomes for individuals waiting for organ transplants and improve support for living donors,” according to the White House announcement.

DCI reported the expansion of their REACH Kidney Care Program to 27 communities in 17 states. REACH will provide patient education and assistance to 2,500 patients with less than 30 percent of kidney function over the next year with the goal of increasing access to pre-emptive transplant before a patient needs dialysis.

“DCI is committed to educating our patients about all treatment options well before kidney failure occurs. If patients desire a transplant, we will equip them with the resources they need to discuss organ donation with potential living donors,” said Johnson.

Currently, only 2.6% of patients nationwide receive a pre-emptive kidney transplant. DCI’s goal is to quadruple that rate for patients.

“Patients with kidney failure face a variety of challenges, however, a lengthy wait time for a transplant shouldn’t be one of them,” said Johnson. “We will work closely to delay kidney failure as long as medically possible through education and counseling of individuals in the chronic kidney disease stages. If kidney failure is unavoidable, our team will coordinate with transplant centers to ensure that patients are fully prepared for a transplant.”

Founded in 1971, Dialysis Clinic, Inc. (DCI) is the nation’s largest non-profit dialysis provider with over 230 outpatient dialysis clinics in 28 states. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, DCI employs over 5,000 people serving approximately 15,000 dialysis patients. DCI’s services include in-center hemodialysis, in-center self-care hemodialysis, home hemodialysis, Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD), and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD). Acute dialysis facilities are located within hospitals around the US. The United States Renal Data System has found DCI to have the lowest patient mortality and hospitalization rates among the national dialysis providers for the last 13 years. DCI operates under the mission “We are a non-profit service organization. The care of the patient is our reason for existence.” For more information on the USRDS information, visit www.usrds.org.